THEE RANT

Saturday, August 1, 2009

A 31-year-old man was fatally shot by the police on Saturday morning after he opened fire on two uniformed patrol officers on a Bronx street, officials said.

The man, who was pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center at 3:30 a.m., about an hour after the shooting, was not immediately identified. Friends identified him as Oswaldo Sevilla, 31, and said he lived on the third floor of a six-story apartment building near the scene of the shooting.

He was struck once in the chest, the police said. The police said they would determine whether the shooting fell within the department’s guidelines after a routine inquiry by an internal shooting review board.

The shooting occurred after a woman flagged down two officers who were on patrol on Southern Boulevard near Avenue St. John in the 41st Precinct. She told them there was a man with a gun in the area. Later, investigators came to believe that the man had already fired two shots.

The officers got out of their marked car on Southern Boulevard and saw a man fitting the description the woman gave them, the police said.

A crowd had gathered and was also pointing at the man, an official said.

At the same time, although the officers did not know it, someone had called 911 to report gunshots.

As the officers approached the man, he walked quickly away from the crowd. The officers used their radios to call for backup and ordered the man to stop and drop the gun, which they could see in his hand, an official said.

The man, who had moved about 100 feet from the crowd as he walked north on Southern Boulevard, turned and fired several shots in the officers’ direction, the police said.

The officers took cover behind a van parked on the street and returned fire.

By that time, two more uniformed officers had arrived. At least one of them also returned fire, according to the police. It was unclear which of the officers shot the man.

Jhailan Sadi, 22, a bodega clerk, said he had witnessed part of the shooting and verified the police account. Mr. Sadi said he heard screaming around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, and then saw a man fire into the air. When officers arrived and ordered the man to drop the gun, he turned and shot at the police, Mr. Sadi said.

“Then they shot at him,” he said.

Emergency medical technicians took the wounded man to Lincoln hospital. The four officers were taken to Jacobi Medical Center and treated for trauma, the police said.

At the scene, officers found a .32-caliber semiautomatic pistol, but ballistics tests on the weapon had not been completed.

On Saturday afternoon, Maria Rodriguez, a friend of Mr. Sevilla, described him as quiet and said his death was baffling.

“Something must have happened to him,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “That doesn’t sound like the man I know.”